Thursday 1 January
Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace and Gromit, are to contribute to the government’s £75m active lifestyles marketing campaign, Change4Life. Cambridge University inaugurates its 800th anniversary year; a new peal for its bells has been specially commissioned. The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising, which is situated in London’s Notting Hill, launched an exhibition titled Waste Not, Want Not which explores the advertising of thrift and austerity from the 1940s.

Friday 2 January
Roger Venton, formerly the head gamekeeper at the Kempton estate in Shropshire, is given a twelve-month suspended sentence after admitting illegally trapping and killing birds of prey. Haroon Lorgat, chief executive of the International Cricket Council says that the answer to declining Test attendances will be the day-night Test match, just as soon as they can find a ball that will work under floodlights.

Saturday 3 January
Kettering Town go into the third round of the FA Cup with Palestine Aid on their shirts but Manchester City’s billions can’t keep them from defeat against Nottingham Forest. The next Dr Who is to be 26-year-old Matt Smith. The price of hotel rooms in the UK has fallen for the first time in four years, according to hotel statisticians.

Sunday 4 January
The Royal Shakespeare Company is to lead the Stand Up for Shakespeare Assemblies Week later this month in an effort to get primary and secondary school pupils on board with the Bard. The Prince’s Trust says that the rate of depression among young people is at an alarming level and a recession is likely to make it worse. Two of Arsenal’s leading strikers, Karen Carney and Julie Fleeting, are off to join the Women’s Professional Soccer league in the USA.

Monday 5 January
The Rugby Football Union and esteemed publishers Mills and Boon announce a partnership to bring romantic literature with a sporting twist to the bookshelves of a grateful nation. A Which? report on domestic hotel services suggests that standards could be higher – much higher. The future of morris dancing in the UK is at risk, according to the morris men’s representative body. Scores of people queue up overnight on a Dorset beach to secure their beach house for the summer. French public service TV begins to broadcast without advertising in prime time following the president’s decision to follow the BBC model for France’s five state channels. The owners of Donington Park say they have everything in place to secure planning permission for the hosting of Formula One.

Tuesday 6 January
John Madejski puts Degas’ sculpture up Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans for sale with a £12 million price tag. Apple say that iTunes will soon have the copy protection removed on tracks downloaded from the service. Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe suggests that gambling companies may have to pay an annual £5 million levy to fund treatment for gambling addicts. Football-connected merchant banker Keith Harris says that the end of billionaire bail-outs for the Premier League is over. Shame.

Wednesday 7 January
Egged on by superscouse, Phil Redmond, culture secretary Andy Burnham unveils plans for a British capital of culture competition to be held every four years. Kevin Pietersen gets his way with the sacking of Peter Moores as England cricket coach but things go awry with his plan when he is sacked as captain. Gordon Brown is planning to fund 35,000 apprenticeships for young people across the UK. An Ofsted annual survey suggests that children in the North of England tend to be more emotionally secure that those in the South. A six-month Franco-British festival, titled Paris Calling, will be held this year at 21 arts venues across the UK. The Environment Agency uncovers plans to uncover fifteen kilometres of London’s rivers, such as the Fleet, the Strand and the Tyburn.

Thursday 8 January
Cristiano Ronaldo assists the Italian motor industry by smashing up his new Ferrari in Manchester on the second day of ownership. Six thousand people will be working on the London 2012 site within the next twelve months. Barack Obama will be a character in a forthcoming Spider Man comic and pornography ‘impresario’ Larry Flynt suggests that the US government should bail out the ailing porn industry to the tune of $5 billion. Next on the England captaincy treadmill is Andrew Strauss. Multiplex, famed constructors of Wembley Stadium, launch the biggest high court claim in construction history against design engineers Mott MacDonald; £253 million is at stake. Donington Park gets planning permission for £100 million of improvements.

Friday 9 January
Suggestions that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe could need six hundred grand’s worth of support as a result of the recession are rife. Former MP Oona King is to become head of diversity at Channel 4. Rafa Benitez unfolds a piece of paper and then reads out a pre-prepared whinge against Alex ‘Sir Alex’ Ferguson. Ron Dennis, head of the Maclaren Formula One team, says that Donington might not be up to the task.

Saturday 10 January
Liverpool hands over the reigns of the European capital of culture to Linz in Austria and Vilnius in Lithuania; Phil Redmond points out that each of the city’s 67,000 school children were involved in some sort of cultural project during the year, 15 million visitors turned up (10 million had been predicted) and £800 million was brought into the city’s economy (against a spend of £125 million).
Sundance Film Festival and its time for more predictions of a new dawn for British film producers. Andy Murray wins the Qatar Open; the queue for Wimbledon tickets will start any day. David Vine, sports broadcaster extraordinaire, dies at the age of 74.

Sunday 11 January
Rob Gauntlett, who had become the youngest Briton to summit Everest, is killed in an avalanche on Mont Blanc along with climbing partner James Atkinson. Mexico is considering legislation to ban toy guns in the country. The FA’s women’s and girls’ football strategy suggests central contracts for England players and a summer league. Ronnie O’Sullivan says that snooker is boring and needs livening up to attract the crowds. The Amateur Boxing Association sacks Terry Edwards as chief coach despite Olympic success.

Monday 12 January
New US immigration rules requiring UK visitors to register online in advance of travel come into effect. Disquiet in Australian waters after three shark attacks on surfers in 24 hours. Golden Globe success for British film-makers and a full-scale acceptance speech meltdown by Kate Winslet. The 1911 census goes on line and online mayhem is anticipated. Anne Keothavong becomes the highest-ranked British woman since 1993 by appearing on the international tennis listings at 53.

Tuesday 13 January
Prince Charles and members of his polo club routinely refer to their fellow player, Kolin Dhillon by the endearing nickname ‘Sooty’, thus putting to bed any notion that Prince Harry referring to one of his colleagues as ‘Paki’ is in anyway untoward in royal circles. Meanwhile Hampshire police have charged eleven people with chanting racist abuse at Sol Campbell during the Portsmouth-Tottenham game last year. Material from the Prado museum are going online thanks to Google Earth. The BBC is to launch an X-Factor-style talent show for butchers. Rod Bransgrove, chair of Hampshire County Cricket Club and contender for the top job at the ECB, says that international Twenty20 cricket should be ended. Great Britain’s women’s basketball team loses to Finland at home, putting their participation in the 2012 Olympics at risk. Matthew Hayden announces his retirement from international cricket.

Wednesday 14 January
A new exhibition opens at RAF Cosford titled Diversity in the Royal Air Force. The Confederation of Passenger Transport reports that twice as many Britons are planning to holiday in the UK compared with last year’s figures. The National Theatre announces plans to broadcast its plays to cinemas and on the Tottenham Court Road the Astoria holds its last gig before demolition. Nicolas Sarkozy unveils plans for a presidential museum of French history and is greeted by the shrugging of shoulders and the French equivalent of ‘meh’. Shareholders of Punch Taverns votes down the directors’ rewards. London Olympics organisers swallow something hard and jagged as Nortel, a major 2012 sponsor, files for bankruptcy. Architect Jan Kaplicky, designer of the Lord’s media centre, dies at the age of 71.

Thursday 15 January
Neil MacGregor marks the 250th anniversary of the British Museum opening to the public with a lecture setting out the role of the museum in modern society. Manchester City say they are very close to signing Kaka from Milan for the small matter of £135 million. The RFU says it will not support extra games in the Premiership season as a means of combating the economic downturn.

Friday 16 January
London is halfway between being granted the 2012 Games and the opening ceremony. Transport secretary Geoff Hoon turns film critic after actor Emma Thompson has the temerity to be critical of plans for a third runway at Heathrow. “She has been in some very good films,” he said [true]. “Love Actually is very good” [false]. Tate Britain opens Vong Phaophanit’s bamboo installation, What Falls to the Ground but Can’t Be Eaten as part of the BP British Art Displays 2009 series. The music industry says that 95% of all music downloads are illegal, costing an industry that was killed by home taping in the 1980s an estimated £180 million a year. The British Library is seeking £300,000 damages from an Iranian academic, Farhad Hakinmzadeh, jailed for stealing pages from antique books. Playwright, author, barrister and bon viveur John Mortimer passes away at the age of 85.

Saturday 17 January
Unrest among the representatives of the junior members of the Oliver! cast, most of whom (the actors rather than the parents, guardians and agents) are earning only £20 a night. President-elect Obama boards a train in Philadelphia bound for Washington. Four British women will be in the first-round draw for the Australian Open, the best showing for Britain’s tennis players since 1992.

Sunday 18 January
Lance Armstrong gets back on his bike in anger in the Tour Down Under. China fails in its first attempt to storm the cricketing world as it takes a fearful hammering in the Asian Cricket Council Trophy Challenge. An African safari lodge, complete with the full range of animals, is to open near Hythe in Kent. Lord Marland confirms that his hat is in the ring for the chairmanship of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Tony Hart, TV artistic inspiration extraordinaire, dies at the age of 83.

Monday 19 January
Sleddale Hall, a remote cottage in Cumbria with peerless Withnail and I provenance, goes up for sale. Harry Nicolaides, an Australian novelist, is jailed in Thailand for insulting the Thai monarchy; the novel in question sold seven copies in Thailand. The GB women’s basketball squad’s hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics are ended by a 71-66 defeat to Romania. Spain and Portugal are to submit a joint bid for the 2018 FIF World Cup, much to the chagrin of the English FA.

Tuesday 20 January
Barack Obama takes the presidential oath to launch a new cultural era for the USA. Someone pays twelve grand for a trolley used in the Café Royal, which closed recently. UK Film Council figures show record takings for cinema in the UK. Kaka’s not coming to City and Robinho has nipped off home to Brazil without telling anyone. England prop Matt Stevens reveals that he failed a drugs test last month; a ban awaits. Bernie Ecclestone suggests that Formula One teams should expect less money from the sport’s controlling bodies rather than the bigger slice for which they have been lobbying.

Wednesday 21 January
With private sector funding all dried up, the government is to bail out the London 2012 athletes’ village and media centre to the tune of £460 million. Ofcom’s report on the future of public service broadcasting is published, which suggests that Channel 4 should become part of an enlarged public service organisation. The Malaysian government bans R&B Bajun Rihanna from performing in the country; it seems she’s too sexy. AIG announces it will not renew its sponsorship of Manchester United’s shirts and may try to end the deal earlier than originally intended. The DCMS names a ten-person committee to review the broadcasting ‘crown jewels’. Everton’s plans for a new stadium in Kirkby are turned down by Liverpool City Council.

Thursday 22 January
Jonathan Ross is back at the BBC after his enforced lay-off. Bad weather has pushed back the completion date for Bournemouth’s surf reef (see TLR features passim) and, of course, pushed up the price; from an original estimate of £1.4 million, it could now come in closer to £3 million. The Anstruther Fish Bar in Fife is named the UK’s best chippy. A travelling art show comprising works from the collection of art dealer Anthony d’Offay is to tour the UK, bringing contemporary art – and highly charged debate – to all corners of the kingdom.

Friday 23 January
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s competition to find a plausible ending for The Italian Job is won by John Godwin (break the windows of the bus at the overhanging end, start the engine to empty the fuel tank in the rear of the bus and then one person gets out to secure the vehicle). English Heritage is to make £2.6 million of grants available to 23 cathedrals across England. The Royal Court Theatre in London is to stage Caryl Churchill’s play, Seven Jewish Children – A Play for Gaza, just a month after it was written. Fans with Serbian and Croatian sympathies come to blows at the Australian Open tennis. President Sarkozy announces €600 million aid for the French newspaper industry; every 18-year-old is to get a free subscription in an effort to boost readership habits. John Lloyd is to introduce a play-off system to decide the members of the Davis Cup team. “It’s a chance to separate the men from the boys,” he said.

Saturday 24 January
A series of Burns night suppers around the world kick off a campaign to persuade people around the world with Scottish heritage to visit Scotland. Roman Abramovich may well be feeling the financial pinch, according to some financial reports. Millwall fans live up to their reputation for violence at Hull in the FA Cup. Three climbers are killed in an avalanche on Glen Coe in Scotland.

Sunday 25 January
Attendances at plays and musicals in London in 2008 were 1% up on last year’s attendance with a total of almost fourteen million. The Whitechapel Gallery will be re-opened in April with a tapestry replica of Picasso’s Guernica that usually hangs in the United Nations building in New York. Tim Smit says that the Eden Project is in discussions to take the project international. BBC2 is to host a talent reality show for young artists in association with Charles Saatchi. The Centre for Cities suggests that Liverpool is one of the three British cities most likely to suffer from the impact of the recession. Developers planning to work their regenerative magic on the old shipyards of Belfast say they are still confident that the Titanic Quarter will go ahead despite the recession.

Monday 26 January
It seems that the financial crisis could put PFI schemes, including the £45 billion Building for Schools programme, under threat. Glasgow City Council has m’learned friends investigating how much it might have lost in reproduction rights for the Salvador Dali painting Christ of St John of the Cross, which is owned by the council. The short list for projects to use the tidal flow of the Severn to generate energy are unveiled and the Commons public accounts committee hears suggestions that Her Majesty might like to extend opening hours of Buckingham Palace to recoup some of the £32 million needed for work on royal residences. An Italian property development company has bought the Flatiron building in New York; a hotel could be in the offing.

Tuesday 27 January
Manchester City’s very own Robhino is arrested over allegations of sexual assault in a nightclub last week. The Prado announces that Goya’s The Colossus that hangs on its walls was not painted by Goya but probably one of his assistants; but it will stay in situ. One of Iran’s women’s football team is disbanded following their training game against their club’s men’s youth team; coaches and official have been fined. American literary legend John Updike dies aged 76.

Wednesday 28 January
Honda Racing, which runs the Honda Formula One team, reveals it has been in discussion with the government regarding a possible funding package as part of support for the motor industry. A court hears of the circumstances in 2006 when two people were killed by he escape of an inflatable art work by Maurice Agis. Sir Christopher Frayling, who steps down as chairman of the Arts Council this week, says he won’t miss the “relentless venom”. Meanwhile the Arts Council ends its £500,000 revenue grant for Public in West Bromwich but Sandwell Council offers £3 million as part of a new business plan.

Thursday 29 January
A North Tyneside school has seen an experiment involving short, focused lessons interspersed with sport and exercise have a significant impact on exam performance. The Ministry of Defence and Paralympics GB host a talent-spotting event for forces personnel injured in the line of duty. Miroslaw Balka will be the next artist to make use of the Tate Modern Turbine Hall; his installation will be unveiled in October. Singer-songwriter John Martyn dies at the age of 60. Down House, home of Charles Darwin, is to be nominated as a world heritage site. The Swiss government announces a crack down on naked rambling. The Rugby Football Union warns of job losses and financial hardship as the recession hits the corporate hospitality and sponsorship market. Wembley Stadium will host the Champions League final in 2011. The 2012 Medal Hopes sponsorship programme to raise money for British athletes has fallen £50 million short of its £50 million target and twelve Olympic sports will have their funding cut from Beijing levels as a result of financial shortfalls.

Friday 30 January
Yves St Laurent’s art collection goes on display in advance of an auction in Paris; estimates suggest a value of some £300 million. British Waterways are to remove 25,000 fish from the Caen Hill flight of locks near Devizes to encourage biodiversity. Next month will also see the launch of the Million Ponds Project to restore open water across the UK. The Bearded Wonder, Bill Frindall, dies at the age of 69 after contracting legionnaires’ disease.

Saturday 31 January
Serena Williams wins the Australian Open. Dwain Chambers sets a personal best over 60m at a meeting in Birmingham and reckons he can have that Usain Bolt, no problem. Manchester United set a record with twelve clean sheets on the trot. The Commons public accounts committee estimates that British companies may be avoiding around £8.5 billion in tax; the TUC reckons its more like £13 billion. Diana and Actaeon by Titian has been saved for the nation following a campaign to raise the £50 million price tag. The National Skills Forum says that television programmes perpetuate negative stereotypes of women. The FA is accused of dragging its heels over plans for a women’s summer league, which is scheduled to start in 2010. Michael Phelps apologises after photographs are published that show him holding a suspiciously small pipe. “I acted in an inappropriate way,” he says.

 

 

 

 

Friday 9 January
Suggestions that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe could need six hundred grand’s worth of support as a result of the recession are rife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 13 January
Prince Charles and members of his polo club routinely refer to their fellow player, Kolin Dhillon by the endearing nickname ‘Sooty’, thus putting to bed any notion that Prince Harry referring to one of his colleagues as ‘Paki’ is in anyway untoward in royal circles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 14 January
A new exhibition opens at RAF Cosford titled Diversity in the Royal Air Force.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 17 January
Unrest among the representatives of the junior members of the Oliver! cast, most of whom (the actors rather than the parents, guardians and agents) are earning only £20 a night.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 20 January
Barack Obama takes the presidential oath to launch a new cultural era for the USA.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 23 January:
John Lloyd is to introduce a play-off system to decide the members of the Davis Cup team. “It’s a chance to separate the men from the boys,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 26 January:
Glasgow City Council has m’learned friends investigating how much it might have lost in reproduction rights for the Salvador Dali painting Christ of St John of the Cross, which is owned by the council.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 30 January:
Yves St Laurent’s art collection goes on display in advance of an auction in Paris; estimates suggest a value of some £300 million. British Waterways are to remove 25,000 fish from the Caen Hill flight of locks near Devizes to encourage biodiversity.

 

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